Senate confirms Lynch as attorney general
Loretta Lynch, who won Senate confirmation to become the next U.S. attorney general, is taking over the Justice Department amid anuproar over police brutality that could largely define her tenure.
WASHINGTON — Loretta Lynch, who won Senate confirmation Thursday to become the next U.S. attorney general, is taking over the Justice Department amid a national uproar over alleged police brutality that could largely define her tenure.
The first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer arrives at a time of unprecedented public pressure for federal officials to respond to the growing list of confrontations between police and unarmed citizens.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday it was investigating last week’s death in Baltimore of Freddie Gray, who died of a broken spine after being taken into police custody, the latest in a series of such controversies since the fatal Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
As a longtime federal prosecutor who has put cops in jail, yet also a favorite of the law enforcement establishment, Lynch brings credibility to the issue that few others could muster.
“She is in a good position because she has earned credibility with the law enforcement community to begin with,” said James M. Cole, who served as deputy attorney general until January.
President Barack Obama on Thursday praised Lynch’s record, calling her “a tough, independent and well-respected prosecutor on key, bipartisan priorities like criminal justice reform.”
Lynch was approved by a narrow 56-43 Senate vote. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas voted against her.
Texas’ junior senator, Ted Cruz, who had lectured his colleagues in a floor speech Thursday on Lynch’s unsuitability as attorney general, skipped the vote to fly to Dallas for a meeting and a fundraiser for his presidential campaign.
Cruz, who has been one of Lynch’s chief antagonists, was the only senator who missed the vote.
Lynch will find it hard to address the mounting public demands for action against rogue cops while still maintaining the faith of the 113,000 prosecutors, prison guards, and FBI and DEA agents on her payroll.
“That’s her first and maybe biggest challenge, because if you can’t get the law enforcement community to buy into your programs or your reforms, they don’t happen,” said Seth Stoughton, who teaches law at the University of South Carolina.
As a new member of the Obama administration, Lynch will no doubt inherit some of the baggage of her predecessor, Eric H. Holder Jr.
“Many in the law enforcement community have already developed an opinion of the Obama administration as antipolice,” Stoughton said. “With Miss Lynch being appointed as part of that administration, she already has a hurdle to overcome to get the trust of law enforcement.”
Holder was heavily criticized by police for making critical public comments about the Ferguson Police Department after Brown’s death.
But errant police will be only one of many thorny issues on Lynch’s agenda. Cole, the department’s former No. 2, said that among them is the reauthorization of the post-9/11 Patriot Act, a section of which has been used to authorize National Security Agency collection of telephone call records. That provision is due to expire in June.
Cole said Lynch would also take over responsibility for the department’s investigation into whether Internal Revenue Service officials violated any laws when they targeted political groups seeking tax-exempt status. Other Justice Department officials mentioned the ongoing investigation into alleged manipulation of patient data by officials in the Veterans Affairs department.